"Heavy exercise causes a transient downturn in the normal function of the immune system... and then viruses that are omnipresent can gain easy access, divide and then make people sick."
- David Nieman DrPh
David Nieman DrPH is a professor in the College of Health Sciences at Appalachian State University, and director of the Human Performance Lab at the North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC) in Kannapolis, NC. He has done extensive research in the field of exercise immunology. He has received $7.5 million in research grants, has published more than 300 peer-reviewed publications, and his publications have been cited more than 16,000 times. He is the author of nine books on health, exercise science and nutrition. We sat down to discuss ways athletes make themselves susceptible to chronic fatigue as well as compromise their immune function through training. For instance, David's research involving the L.A. marathon has found that the odds of runners getting sick during the week after a marathon are 6 X higher than normal. Listen closely, this is a good one.
North Carolina Research Campus